1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which makes it possible for an operator to display on a display means image information stored in memory means, to adjust the quality of the displayed image while viewing it and to produce a printout according to the image quality thus adjusted, as well as an image forming apparatus arranged to receive image information from a memory device for storing image information then to form an image on an image-forming medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of image forming apparatus, video monitors, video printers and the like have recently been provided as apparatus arranged to temporarily store input color image information in a memory means such as a semiconductor memory, to read out the stored image information to form an image, and to produce a display or printout thereof.
In general, conventional types of image forming apparatus simply produce a display or printout of video signals for television and therefore make it difficult to adjust the image quality of an output image of the video signals. Even if such adjustment is possible, the process of adjusting the quality of an image to be displayed on a monitor television utterly differs from the process of adjusting the quality of an image to be printed out from a video printer. Accordingly, even with an apparatus which allows an image to be adjusted to the desired image quality, if an operator is to produce a printout of image information while viewing a video monitor, he must adjust the image quality of the printout after the image quality of the image information has been confirmed in a printed form. This operation is time-consuming, and since a printout is needed for each adjustment, a serious waste of resources will result.
In addition, the conventional image forming apparatus of the type described have limited functions since they have only to produce a hard copy of fixed size from an input image signal. This is because both the conventional image sources of video signals for television and recording paper for printout are of a size which is primarily determined.
However, in recent years, a demand has arisen for apparatus capable of producing a printout from various information sources such as images read through a color scanner or supplied from a personal computer and so on, in addition to the conventional video signals supplied from television receivers.
In general, images supplied from color scanners or personal computers have different sizes. If the size of an input image is larger than the size of the recording paper employed, the output image will be partially cut away and it will be impossible to print out the entire input image perfectly.
In addition, it is desirable that the apparatus be usable with recording paper of various sizes without being limited to a particular size alone. However, if the conventional apparatus is employed to print an input image on recording paper of different sizes, the output image may be partially cut away or difficult to view.